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    Homicide Hideaway: Shandra Higheagle Mystery, #12
    Homicide Hideaway: Shandra Higheagle Mystery, #12
    Homicide Hideaway: Shandra Higheagle Mystery, #12
    Ebook198 pages2 hours

    Homicide Hideaway: Shandra Higheagle Mystery, #12

    By Paty Jager

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    About this ebook

    Can tracking skills and dreams discover a killer before it's too late? 

    Love… Marriage… Murder

    Less than twelve hours after arriving at a remote hunting lodge for their honeymoon, Shandra Higheagle and Detective Ryan Greer find a body. Shandra's cousin had quarreled with the man earlier, and the clues point to her as being the murderer.

    Fish and Wildlife State Trooper Gabriel Hawke, arrives and immediately takes a dislike to Shandra's cousin. But he is willing to work with Shandra and Ryan to discover the truth.

    For a remote hunting lodge, the place becomes overrun with suspicious guests. Shandra's dreams and Hawke's tracking skills soon discover the cause of the drunk's death.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWindtree Press
    Release dateJan 4, 2019
    ISBN9781947983786
    Homicide Hideaway: Shandra Higheagle Mystery, #12
    Author

    Paty Jager

    Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

    Read more from Paty Jager

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      Book preview

      Homicide Hideaway - Paty Jager

      Copyright

      This is a work of fiction, Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

      HOMICIDE HIDEAWAY

      Copyright © 2019 Patricia Jager

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Windtree Press except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

      Contact Information: info@windtreepress.com

      Windtree Press

      Hillsboro, Oregon

      http://windtreepress.com

      Cover Art by Christina Keerins

      Published in the United States of America

      Ebook-  ISBN  978-1-947983-78-6

      Also available in print.

      Author’s Notes

      This book was formulated to introduce to you the main character in my new Gabriel Hawke series. For my hardcore fans this is not the last Shandra and Ryan book. There will be more as long as I can come up with story ideas that I am excited to write.

      Special Thanks to:

      Lloyd Meeker for his help with aircraft knowledge.

      Judy Melinek, M.D.

      Crime Scene Writers Yahoo Group

      Chapter One

      A honeymoon on top of a mountain with no interruptions from Ryan’s work sounded like bliss to Shandra. The drive from Nespelem, Washington to Wallowa County, Oregon had taken them the better part of the day. They stopped multiple times along the way, reading historical signs on the sides of the roads. Now they were parked at the small airport between Alder and Prairie Creek.

      Shandra Higheagle Greer, she said out loud, watching Ryan walk over to a man standing beside a small building with an Office sign.  She was too old to be so giddy over the lyrical way her married name tripped off her tongue. But even though she’d proclaimed she didn’t want to marry, Ryan had proved the last three years that she’d known him, that he would never hurt her. She smiled and stepped out of the Jeep as Ryan was greeted by the small man in his seventies.

      Welcome to Prairie Creek Air Field. What can I do for you? The man shook hands with Ryan.

      We’re here to fly into Charlie’s Hunting Lodge, Ryan said.

      You’re early. That flight won’t go out until tomorrow mornin. The man tipped his ball cap back and scratched his bald head.

      What do you mean we have to wait until morning? Ryan asked.

      She heard the irritation and tiredness in his tone. They’d married yesterday and had spent the whole night with their wedding guests, leaving Nespelem this morning.

      Ms. Singer won’t be able to land at the lodge if she leaves this late in the day. The man shaded his eyes under the ball cap with aviation wings and looked toward what Shandra had learned were the Wallowa Mountains. Land that her ancestors had once called home.

      This morning after the last guests celebrating their wedding left her aunt and uncle’s ranch, Uncle Martin had explained how Charlie’s Hunting Lodge, where they were honeymooning, had been in his family for years. Even when Nez Perce weren’t allowed to own land in the Wallowa country. But Charlie Singer’s great-grandfather had found a White man willing to pretend he owned the land and run the lodge until the old law was no longer in effect and Nez Perce were allowed back onto the land they had once roamed.

      Is there a place we can spend the night? she asked.

      The Wagon Wheel is clean and affordable. You should have seen it on the way through Alder, the man said.

      Ryan nodded. I did. Do you have a way to contact Ms. Singer and let her know we are here?

      The man grinned. Ask for her when you get a room. She stays at the Wagon Wheel. She flew in earlier today to get supplies and take you out tomorrow. The man tipped his cap back over his eyes and put his hand on the door knob, ending the conversation.

      Shandra returned to her Jeep. They’d brought it to save on fuel, not knowing how far they’d have to drive to get to the honeymoon her aunt and uncle had set up.

      At least we’ll be able to connect with my cousin tonight and find out what time we’ll leave in the morning, Shandra said, climbing into the passenger side.

      Ryan slid behind the wheel. I hope it’s not too early. I’m beat.

      ~*~

      At the single story, about a twenty room motel, they walked into the lobby and the middle of an argument. Shandra stopped Ryan, holding him from moving toward the registration desk where a woman in her fifties was as enthralled with the argument as Shandra. People watching was always fascinating.

      Charlie wasn’t in his right mind to leave that place to you. Hell, you didn’t even come visit him or even know it was there! shouted a man in his seventies. He was in the face of a woman in her late forties. The woman had on a button-up-the-front, long-sleeved, pink shirt and dress trousers. Her hair was cut short, but stylish.

      I didn’t ask for it, but I’ll do my best to keep it in the family, the woman said in a tone that knew how to command respect.

      You stole what is mine. Charlie said we were partners. You’ll pay. You’ll see. The man shoved the woman to the side and wobbled past Shandra and Ryan and out the door.

      Dani, Hector at the airport tried calling you while Doolie was laying into you, the middle-aged woman behind the registration desk said.

      The woman, Dani, seemed preoccupied.

      Ryan walked up to her. Are you Dani Singer? The pilot that’s taking two people to Charlie’s Hunting Lodge tomorrow?

      The woman shook herself and held out her hand. I am. You must be who Hector was calling about.

      Ryan and Shandra Greer. Ryan shook hands with the woman.

      Shandra extended her hand. My Uncle Martin says we’re distant relatives.

      Dani scowled. Really? How?

      Ryan touched Shandra’s elbow. I’m going to get us a room.

      It’s ready for you. All you have to do is get the key, Dani said.

      Thanks. Ryan went up to the desk and Shandra remained with Dani.

      Uncle Martin said his uncle on his mother’s side was related to Charlie, your uncle. Is your family from the Colville Reservation?

      Dani winced and shook her head. Charlie and my father were from Lapwai.

      Shandra noticed the woman didn’t say she was from there. Martin had thought the two young cousins would have something in common because they were both half Nez Perce. It appeared Dani liked to hide that half.

      Ryan walked back over. What time do you want us at the airport in the morning?

      No later than nine. This time of year, once the air warms up it makes rough currents in the mountains. Dani nodded to them both and strode down the hall of the motel.

      You can tell she’s had military training. Ryan hooked his arm through Shandra’s and led her down the hall to room 12.

      It’s going to be fun getting to know her and understand her feelings about family. Shandra entered the small, but clean, room excited as much about spending uninterrupted time with Ryan as she was about getting to know her cousin.

      Chapter Two

      The plane banked over a narrow canyon between two mountains. Shandra’s fingers dug into the armrest of her seat. The drone of the engine had made it hard to speak the whole trip. Now the sound picked up and the motion leaned Shandra back in the seat as the aircraft’s nose pointed upward. The plane tipped forward, barely skimming over several trees and the loud drone of the engine stopped. Had they lost the engine? Her heart crawled up her throat. Stealing a gaze forward, Shandra saw a narrow, short, grassy landing strip. Her cousin didn’t seem the least concerned as the plane drifted downward and the sound of air rushed by the small open window on the pilot’s side.

      Shandra closed her eyes and held her breath.

      The plane bobbed a bit to one side and then the other before a small bounce and the drag of the wheels on the turf told her they had landed safely.

      Shandra, we’re here, Ryan said, shaking her by the shoulders. That was some landing, he said to their pilot, Dani.

      Opening her eyes, Shandra took in the log building with a porch the length of the front sporting antlers and a sign that read, Charlie’s Hunting Lodge. To the right sat three cabins and a long building that she would guess was the bunkhouse.  A helicopter was tethered to the ground to the left of the barn and corrals.

      I can see why the only way in is by plane or horse. Shandra unbuckled and ducked to crawl out of the four-seater plane. The views flying in here were spectacular. It gave me ideas for new vases. She’d brought her sketch pad, knowing even though Ryan wouldn’t be able to be contacted here due to no internet or phone service, he wouldn’t mind her sketching things that could be incorporated into future pottery projects.

      I wasn’t sure you would see any of it the way your eyes were pinched shut at takeoff, Dani said, in a joking tone.

      I’ve never flown in such a small aircraft. Shandra had been delighted when they’d met little, to no, turbulence today.

      I prefer the small ones over the large planes. The smaller ones are more agile. Dani grabbed their bags which were on top of boxes of supplies. Go on in. Leslie should have your room ready for you.

      Ryan picked up their bags. Shandra slung a backpack over her shoulder as a man she’d judge to be in his sixties came out of the barn headed toward the plane.

      The outside of the lodge was rustic almost to the point of looking about to fall down, but the inside was clean and tidy and showed areas where it had been recently patched.

      It looks like Dani is taking her job of keeping the lodge in the family to heart, Ryan said, nodding toward a ladder and cleaning supplies in the corner of the great room.

      A small thin woman with skin that looked as if it had been tanned by cigarette smoke, stepped out of a door to the right. Are you the newlyweds?

      Mr. and Mrs. Greer, Ryan said.

      Shandra smiled at the way he said the Mrs. with pride.

      You’ll be in room one off the great room. She led them into the great room.

      Shandra noticed two doors off the larger room.  How many rooms are in the lodge?

      These two bedrooms are for guests. The hallway to the right of the desk has Ms. Singer’s room and the office. My room is off the kitchen through the dining room. It’s the door at the end.

      And I saw three cabins? Is the long building a bunkhouse? Shandra asked, wondering at the woman not being all that sociable.

      Yes. We have the three cabins and the wranglers stay in the bunkhouse. She pivoted and took one step.

      How many wranglers are there?

      Two when the drunken fool Doolie is here. She didn’t wait around for any more questions. Her short legs carried her across the room and through the door before Shandra had stopped wondering at the housekeeper calling Doolie a drunken fool.

      Wasn’t Doolie the name of the man arguing with Dani last night? she asked Ryan as he opened the door to their room.

      She lost track of her thoughts catching a glimpse out the window. A majestic snow-capped mountain peak filled the window like a landscape painting. The massive rocks, glittering snow, and towering pines had the appearance of being close enough to reach out and touch. Look at that view!

      Ryan stood behind her, reaching around and hugging her close. "This is going to be the perfect place for us to spend time together. There’s no way the sheriff’s department can find me. We can go for horseback rides and day hikes, and spend the nights staring at the stars. He spun her in his arms and kissed her.

      Shandra had dreamed of a moment like this ever since they’d both agreed to get married. It had been a decision they both had to agree on as they were both marriage shy. At the wedding, after seeing her family with Ryan’s, she knew this would be a lasting marriage and Ryan had proven to her he would never try to change her.

      A knock on the door pulled them out of the kiss and her out of her thoughts.

      Ryan walked to the door and opened it.

      Dani stood back a couple of feet. I’d like to show you around and then you can make decisions of what you’d like to do while you’re here.

      I noticed there’s no bathroom connected to the room, Shandra said, having realized there was only one door and that led to the great room.

      Didn’t you read the brochure? Dani asked, the scowl, Shandra was becoming used to seeing on the woman’s face, was back. It appeared not knowing everything or following the rules bothered her.

      Uncle Martin handed Ryan the brochure about midnight last night after our wedding and told us where we were going. We didn’t really take the time to read it.

      This way. Dani led them down the hall that Leslie had said went to the office and owner’s bedroom.

      She opened a door and stepped outside. Two small buildings that resembled quaint outhouses stood fifty feet behind the lodge.

      Those are the outhouses. They aren’t marked men’s or women’s, use whichever one is open. Dani turned to the right. A small building with what looked like a water tank on top sat at the corner of the building. "If you don’t mind a cool shower, you can take one whenever you wish. I do recommend that to catch the water at its warmest, take a shower just before dark. The water will have had all day to heat up. I’m planning to paint the tank black to gain more use of the sunlight to heat. If you want a warm

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